New Bulldozers Get Tech Upgrades

8/26/2013 7:35PM

As experienced bulldozer drivers retire, heavy equipment manufacturers are including technology in new models to make precise earth-moving easier. WSJ's James Hagerty takes a spin in a brand new dozer. Photo: Raymond McCrea Jones.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... it's not your typical driver's ed class ... here in Charters village orgy of ... heavy equipment maker Komatsu Limited offers training courses for their earth moving machine ... that includes all those years with high tech sensors to data processing ... to make machines easier to operate in the middle ... there's no hard to get ... there ... as the baby boomer generation starts to retire ... skilled Josey drivers are getting harder to buy ... so what we do ... their first day of ... the one human ... the equipment makers like Komatsu Caterpillar and Deere ... are using GPS and other technologies to automate maneuvers that use to require years of training and experience to master ... for the first part of ... this is true for all ... and so ... on ... were the King ... in the two hours I had at the controls I manage to get to the late start ... lifting the front of the dozer off the ground ... the end of my session I was carving fairly smooth plains in the various ... thanks to the computerized system dieting delay ... I'll save the parallel parking ... for next time ... this is James Haggerty for The Wall Street Journal in Carter's Bill George ...